Sourdough in the Bread Machine (advice and hints)
from Llyn, 12/3/04:
My DH bakes several loaves of sourdough a week in out breadmaker. He uses
either the Basic program or the French bread program depending on how
crusty he wants it.
He says:
1. The starter has to be at room temp so take it out and feed it the night before baking.
2. Put all the dry ingredients in the machine first.
3. reduce the quantity of the flour by the amount of the starter. He uses a cup of starter for a 1.5 lb loaf. Also, you will have to reduce the quantity of the liquid a bit - he says the only way to know by how much is to eyeball it.
4. Add some yeast. The sourdough will not rise well without adding extra yeast. He says that figuring out how much yeast to add is something you have to develop a feel for and depends on your starter, type of flour used, added herbs, etc. so he can't say how much.
5. Be sure to check the bread when your machine calls for this and add more water or flour as needed.
He's made regular white sourdough, wheat sourdough, rye sourdough, and herbed sourdough in the machine very successfully.